Government to accept Self-Attested documents

Indian citizens will not have to rush to a gazette officer or a notary to get their documents attested. Giving relief to the people, the government has decided to eliminate the necessity of filing affidavits from a gazetted officer or a notary for a substantial number of government-related works. Instead of following the old practice, the government has decided to promote self-attestation of documents.

The Government has also asked states to review the existing necessity of attaching such affidavits with various application forms and implement self-attestation of documents.

The measure is in line with the recommendations of 12th report, ‘Citizen Centric Administration-The Heart of Governance’, of the second Administrative Reforms Commission which suggested simplifying procedures for self-certification provision.

It has been observed that getting an affidavit is a cumbersome process. Notaries charge Rs 100-500 for providing affidavits. Also, most of the gazetted officials also do not approve affidavits in the absence of sufficient documents. In villages and remote areas the situation is even worse.

Some ministries or state governments have embraced the provision of self-certification of documents like marksheet, birth certificate, etc by the applicants or stakeholders instead of requiring them to provide an attested copy of the documents by a gazetted officer or filing of affidavits.

Under the self-attestation process, the original documents are required to be produced at the final stage.